


Gilded Days

by bluegraywilde



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:21:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28206774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluegraywilde/pseuds/bluegraywilde
Summary: The Doctor and the Fam hit up the Chicago's World Fair and run into an old friend on a mission.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 24





	Gilded Days

“America. Again.” Ryan slumped down against the side of the TARDIS, sulking. “If I wanted to deal with racists, I’d just have stayed home.” Not that Yaz could blame him, Jim Crow Alabama had been bad enough just the once. _I was gonna knock some heads if I got called Mexican one more time._

“Yeah Doc, what’s gives?” Graham exited the TARDIS last- _per usual_. He always took an extra five minutes to make sure he had packed enough snacks and water and dressed appropriately for the weather. “I thought you said we were going to the moon.”

“Hmm.” The Doctor experimentally licked some dust and ash on the street. _She really can’t help herself now can she._ “I’d say 1890s. Somewhere in the Midwest. Cleveland?” She frowned, racking around in that big head of hers for the right name. 

The Doctor was always so animated, it was easy to forget how old she really was until moments like this, and then Yaz would feel like she was back in Sheffield with her nan. 

Once Yaz had asked out of curiosity, and the Doctor didn’t seem to know, not for sure. _“2000 years? Bad record keeping a couple lifetimes ago. I must have been distracted. There seemed to be an awful lot of kissing going on.”_

Yaz had blushed and dropped the subject abruptly, aided by the Doctor rushing off to admire some Vinvocci stained glass. Still seemed weird to think of the Doctor as someone who did stuff like that. She just always seemed too... busy.

“No, not Cleveland. The other one. Starts with a C. It’s all very windy. Great big fire that, for the record, was started by an ornery cow and very much not me.” _Will file that little tidbit for later._ Between Ancient Rome and London, Yaz was starting to think most historical fires involved the Doctor one way or the other. _Who knew pyromania could be so endearing._

Yaz knew like three American cities- _don’t exactly need a geography GCSE to be a cop_ \- and only one that started with a C. “Chicago?”

“That’s the one! Yaz, gold star.” The Doctor’s latest whirlwind of activity halted as she got confused again. “Wait we’re still doing stars right? Or did I switch over to points again?”

Ryan just shrugged. Yaz wasn’t able to say one way or the other, even if she had been held at gunpoint- _which I have been, several times now. My parents wouldn’t get a wink of sleep if they knew half the things I’ve been up to._

Graham pulled out a little notebook he kept in his jacket for just this purpose- too many adventures had stopped dead in their tracks because the Doctor kept changing the rules of her own game, then promptly forgot, and got frustrated with herself. _Those Sontaran shock troopers were surprisingly sympathetic to her plight that one time._

“Hmm, I lost track somewhere back at Disneyland Clom.” _Fun trip, although they really needed to work on their queues. Four dimensional ones are just way too confusing._

“Oh but that was ages ago!” The Doctor’s loud exclamation was attracting odd glances from passersby, not that she would notice. “We’ll just have to restart. Sorry Yaz, I’m pretty sure you were in the lead. Or maybe that was Ryan. Well, could have been Graham.” _She really has no clue then._

“Let’s just call it even at a three-way tie.” The way the Doctor beamed just made Yaz fall in love with her all over again. 

The Doctor went over and started stroking the TARDIS, the points or gold stars controversary already forgotten. “Why’d you take me here old gal?”

Ryan scrambled up to avoid getting caught in the impromptu lovefest. “Uh, do you two want some space?”

“Hmm, what?” The Doctor asked distractedly. Once the meaning of Ryan’s words caught up with her, she made a face. “Oh no, it’s not like that. She can’t talk back.” _And that’s the only reason!?_ “Well besides that one time.”

The wistful note the Doctor ended on was… concerning. Yaz exchanged looks with Ryan and Graham, and in that moment they all collectively agreed to never ask. Some things could never be unlearned.

“Can we go now?” Ryan broke out his puppy eyes that the Doctor could never resist. _And to think he didn’t even need them to accidentally seduce James I._

“C’mon gang let’s do a walkabout. The Moon will still be there when we’re done.” The Doctor frowned. “Though on second thought that gets a bit touch and go in 2049, what with it being an egg and all.” 

Yaz raised an eyebrow. The Doctor was always dropping little tidbits like that about the future. Yaz was convinced it wasn’t even conscious, just her motormouth moving faster than her brain could say no. _Which really explains most of the Doctor’s behavior come to think of it._

Before they could possibly ask a follow-up- _of which I have many_ \- the Doctor declared, “Spoilers!”

She held a solitary finger up to her lips with all the seriousness of a school librarian, although she did spare them the shushing. “Besides I’ve already done that one. No fun replaying the greatest hits when there’s new sights to see.”

Given that the sights in question was a grimy industrial American city… Yaz wasn’t quite sure why they didn’t just pop off into the TARDIS again. When all of time and space was at your disposal, they couldn’t all be winners. _Half the time it seems like a lottery where we end up._

“Oi you, what’s the year?” The Doctor flashed a winning enough smile, and a gentleman with a handlebar moustache stopped, likely out of habit of being addressed. “If you would sir.”

Brow furrowed, he asked, “You pulling my leg miss?”

It was the Doctor’s turn for some brow furrowing. “Not really in the habit of pulling legs, but I suppose there’s a first time for everything.”

Yaz slapped the Doctor’s hand down before she could actually yank at the man’s slacks. _How she’s managed to make it to 2000 who knows._

Graham stepped in, explaining, “You see we’ve been traveling for a while now, lost track of the time.” _Was that explanation weak tea… yes. Was it coming from the one period appropriate and respectable seeming member of our party… also yes._

Graham smoothing over things with the locals was nothing new. It was sort of standard operating procedure whenever they landed in a certain kind of past Earth history. Yaz found it immensely frustrating to bow to the sexism and racism of any time. But even she had to admit it made things move along much quicker than they would otherwise. _The number of times I’ve had to play at being the servant though…_ She had to shudder.

Still she had to concede that it was certainly a better system that wouldn’t lead to, say, her being tried for witchcraft and nearly burned at the stake when all she wanted to do was say hi to Joan of Arc. _Just one nineteen-year-old to another… completely hypothetically of course._

“May the First, 1893.” Moustache man kept on walking, muttering some choice words about tourists under his breath.

“Oh that’s the day the World’s Fair opened!” The Doctor whirled back on them, buzzing with excitement, which was more or less her default setting come to think of it. “Well technically it’s official name is the World’s Columbian Exhibition ‘cause it’s been four hundred years since he landed in the Americas but let’s not give him all that much credit given all the pillaging and raping and genocide.” _Yeah sometimes humans can be the real monsters._

Graham said, “Yeah I seem to remember seeing some documentary on the BBC about how the Vikings beat him to it by five hundred years.”

Yaz and Ryan exchanged a glance. _Maybe if you’re only counting white people._

“But the real star isn’t even Columbus.”

Count Yaz among the skeptical. _Don’t Americans have like a whole holiday for him, when he never even stepped foot in their country. If the dummies wanted a day off that badly they should have just made it a bank holiday._

“It’s all the exhibitions. Scientific advancements, engineering marvels, cultural artifacts, the entire world all gathered in one spot in miniature.” _Congratulations they just invented Epcot a few decades early…_

“So what’s the first stop then?” Graham looked rather lost without a guidebook or a camera in hand. But otherwise he played the part of the tourist well. _I guess the TARDIS is basically a deluxe cruise ships, just with more scares and saving the world (sometimes even on purpose) mixed in._

The Doctor struck out in a direction that seemed entirely arbitrary but boy was she was confident so they followed her lead.

They quickly realized she was going in the completely wrong direction and did a one-eighty to follow the flow of traffic toward the fairgrounds. The energy of the crowd was infectious, all the excited shouts and gentle jostling among the throng, so unlike the last time they had checked in on home. _Tiered lockdowns and social distancing need not apply._

“Look,” the Doctor’s outstretched arm arced skyward, unable to reach above the crowding the streets. “There’s the world’s very first Ferris wheel.”

It towered above them, a steel monstrosity that frankly wouldn’t look too out of place in Sheffield. _So that’s what we have to thank for the London Eye._

“Let me guess, some dude named Ferris invented it.” She couldn’t say she had given it much thought before this very moment.

“Ten points to Yaz.” _Oh we’re back to points now. And she still can’t pick up on sarcasm._

Ryan protested, “Stop taking the mickey, that was such a lay-up.” _Somebody’s sounds jealous._

“I’m not really in the business of subtracting points because I adore each and every one of you but unsportsmanlike conduct Ryan.” The Doctor did the slight headshake of disappointment, before promptly moving on to the next thing in her busy brain. _She’s a hummingbird, if she ever settled on one thing for more than a moment, she’d die on the spot._

“Everyone, wave at the mayor.” Only Graham did as he was told.

Yaz shielded her eyes in the sun to see a man on a raised platform, a big broad smile plastered to his face while he waved at passersby much like the Queen. 

Then the Doctor lowered her voice considerably, “Don’t tell him but he gets assassinated at the end of all this.” Louder and considerably cheerier, she added, “But that’s months off so nothing we need worry about.”

“Right.” Ryan blinked, unable to muster a proper response, not that Graham or Yaz could do any better. Like Yaz knew that from her perspective in time all the people swirling around them were long dead. But accepting that in the face of all the vitality right in her face was a tougher thing to swallow.

“Oh and before I forget to mention, there’s also a serial killer on the loose.” _And if you keep smiling that way while saying stuff like that, people who don’t know you will think you’re one, Doctor._

Eyes wide with alarm, Ryan asked, “So are we gonna try and like stop him or something?”

The Doctor sniffed her nose distastefully at the thought. “We’re not time traveling vigilantes… I’ll leave that to the Teselecta thank you very much.”

Once assured the Doctor was out of earshot, shepherding Graham through the crowd to get to the entrance, Ryan turned to Yaz and asked, “What’s that glowing cube thing from the Marvel movies got to do with anything?”

“That’s the tesseract mate.” Times like this Yaz wished she was taller or maybe Ryan was shorter so she could comfortably sling her arm around his neck. _Oh well._ “You’re such a fake fan,” she teased.

The Doctor called back, “Just don’t go off with strange men!” _First off maybe you should take your own advice on like just one occasion. Second that’s just common don’t-want-to-get-murdered sense._

Ryan and Yaz caught up with the Doctor and Graham right before they hit the ticket collector. They got disgruntled looks from others on line, but Yaz brushed them off. She was practically immune to odd looks now. It was all part of traveling on the TARDIS.

“Tickets please.”

“Oh right,” the Doctor’s mouth parted in an o-shape, “always forget this part.” _You were literally just on line._

The Doctor was rifling through her favorite jacket for the psychic paper. The Doctor’s coat had an enviable number of pockets that all seemed to be bigger on the inside, just like the TARDIS. _How she got that lucky with a thrift store find, I’ll never know._ There was of course the distinct possibility that the Doctor had modified them with scientific mumbo-jumbo, in which case Yaz really ought to get jeans with actual pockets out of it while she had the chance.

Yaz checked her own jacket pocket to see the Doctor had forgotten to ask for it back when she had given it to her and Ryan so they could investigate Daniel Barton. And Yaz had simply forgotten to give it back what with almost getting killed by Master and the Kasaavin multiple times over.

“Er- Doctor.” Yaz touched her arm to get her attention and passed along the psychic paper.

“Thank you Yaz.” The Doctor always burned so brightly, her attention flying in a million different directions at once that whenever it was focused her way, Yaz always felt a warm glow, not unlike she imagined a cat bathing in a patch of sun felt like. 

Upon inspecting the psychic paper, the ticket collector stammered out a hasty apology about breaching diplomatic protocol. Yaz always thought it curious how the psychic paper tended to default to royalty or at least noble adjacent. _Sure is a quick way to artificially inflate the ego. Maybe it’s how ordinary folk interpret the whole Time Lord thing._

They entered the fairgrounds proper to see, well, a city in miniature. And one quite unlike their smoggy steel surroundings, the buildings that lined the promenade were perfectly, almost blindingly white.

The facades of the monstrosities were all very large and impressive looking. Yaz could be fooled to thinking they were in Ancient Rome or Athens if there were more togas and tunics and fewer three-piece suits and frilly dresses out and about.

The Doctor eyed the whole gang gawking at their surroundings. “Be sure to take it all in while you can. The whole thing burns down in a year.”

Yaz raised one eyebrow.

“Hey I don’t have anything to do with that one either.” The Doctor paused, rifling around in that big head of hers before ultimately deciding to qualify that statement. “At least as far as I know… “

Yaz tilted her head.

“What? I have no control over flammability. Although there might be a gizmo for that somewhere on the TARDIS. But I suspect I lost that a few redesigns ago.” _You’d lose your head if it weren’t attached to you at all times._

Yaz was now definitely anticipating a future adventure where they traveled a year into the future and had to burn down the fair to stop some alien scheme to take over the world… _or at least the greater Chicago metropolitan area._

Before she could crack a joke to that effect, an unfamiliar voice with an American accent, said, “You lot are clearly not from around these parts.” _Oh here it comes… the casual racism._

Yaz girded herself, trying to calculate precisely how much trouble it would be if she just clocked his lights out before he started hurling slurs in her and Ryan’s direction.

She turned to see a man in a dark trench coat. He was handsome, in a square-jawed action-figure kind of way. _Wait I know that face._ He was younger, bit less gray, skin smoother and plumper, but it was definitely the same man who warned them about the Lone Cyberman. Odd he didn’t seem to remember them. She certainly found being forcibly teleported onto a damaged ship making evasive maneuvers in the vacuum of space memorable.

“Yeah well we’re from Britain.” _Graham can you not be so oblivious right now._

“I’m thinking you’re from a bit farther than that.” His smile was friendly enough, his eyes less so. “Based on those clothes… I want to say early 21st century? Although maybe you just have retro taste. Do the words Woolly Rebellion mean anything to you?” _Oh my god the Doctor wasn’t taking the piss._

“Not that you asked, which quite rude if you asked me.” Yaz could feel her eyes itching to roll to the back of her skull.

“But the name’s Captain Jack Harkness. Eighth wonder of the world at your service.” He punctuated his boasting with a self-congratulatory bow.

The Doctor huffed and puffed. “Oh do stop flirting.”

“That’s funny. I have a friend who likes to say the same very thing.” He eyed Ryan with a hungry look that reminded Yaz of King James I. “Usually I get a much warmer reception. I’ve been known to have my charms.”

Ryan deadpanned, “Yeah we know who you are mate…”

The Doctor cut him off, a warning edge to her voice. “No they very much do not.” The Doctor grabbed at Ryan and Yaz, and surely would have done the same to Graham if she had a third arm, and began pulling them away from Jack.

“Pardon Captain, I just need to have a private word with my traveling companions.” Graham caught on to what was happening and followed the Doctor’s lead.

“Oh by all means.”

Jack settled at the base of one the facade columns, leaning casually against it as if to say he had all day. Yaz watched him as the Doctor herded them a small distance away. His eyes didn’t leave them. There was a certain tension beneath his allegedly relaxed posture, like a lion ready to spring into action and pounce should its captured prey make a run for it. It suddenly occurred to Yaz that friend of the Doctor he may be, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t be dangerous. 

“Look this is a younger Captain Jack than you lot met. It could have disastrous consequences on the timestream if you so much as step a toe out of line. He can’t remember any of you and he sure as hell can’t know I’m me. He’ll be all clingy.” _Says the woman who is the definition of clingy, like a golden retriever got turned into a two-hearted time-traveling alien._

Yaz wasn’t quite sure how that worked. Or why it was different than their usual misadventures. Or the Doctor’s usual habit of collecting stray people to be her new best friends. _You texted the Master for who knows how long not knowing who he was._

“Yeah how does that work Doc?” Graham asked. “Because that chap over there isn’t that much younger than the one we just saw.”

“It has to be time travel.” It seemed so obvious to Yaz. Sure besides Krasko they hadn’t really encountered other time travelers. But the Doctor couldn’t be the only one hopping around. “Right? Like you.”

“No. Yes. No.” It was like watching a flickering switch building up to a blown fuse. “Well to clarify yes and no.” _Good to have that settled._ “He’s a special case. Fixed point in time. An old friend of mine accidentally made him…” The Doctor trailed off, looking for the right word, “A fact of the universe when she brought him back to life.” _Are we just gonna breeze right past that?_

“A fact?” Yaz didn’t understand what that could possibly mean. Weren’t all people facts just by nature of existing? _Please don’t do an existential spiral. Not the time._

“He can’t die,” the Doctor explained. “But he still ages, just incredibly slowly.” She overenunciated those last two words for emphasis.

Anticipating the obvious question, the Doctor continued, “And yes can confirm that gets wonky down the line. And if you think he has a big head now… just you wait.” She covered her mouth, shielding a chuckle.

“How’d you mean he’d get clingy Doc?”

“Yeah isn’t he your friend?” Ryan asked.

“He’ll try to hitchhike,” said the Doctor as if that explained anything.

Yaz scrunched her eyebrows. “And that would be bad…”

“Because he needs to hitchhike with me in oh..,” the Doctor checked her wristwatch for some inexplicable reason, “about hundred and ten years in the future and three lifetimes ago.” _Yes because that’s a meaningful timeframe to a human._

“Are you lot done with your little pow-wow yet?”

Everyone was instantly startled, save the Doctor. Without any of them noticing, under the cover of the surrounding visitors, he had left his perch at the column’s base to join their little circle at the edges. Yaz wasn’t sure how much, if anything, he had overheard. _Potentially not very good._

“You know in most cultures it’s considered rude to eavesdrop,” the Doctor deadpanned as if to emphasize she hadn’t missed a beat.

Jack leaned in, a knowing smile parting his lips. “Is it really eavesdropping if you lot were in my line of sight the entire time and you’re all really bad at whispering?”

Yaz was not amused.

Jack’s face turned serious, of the deadly persuasion. “I’m here tracking down a time traveler.”

This remark was met with a stony silence. _He’s a time cop._ Which seemed like a completely absurd idea but if her travels had taught her nothing else the universe was a big and absurd place. But also Yaz felt like if there were time cops, they would have run into them by now. The Doctor didn’t seem like the type to have a permit for just about anything she did. _Or maybe that’s why the Doctor refuses to stay in one place for too long because she’s some big bad outlaw._

“Not you lot to be clear.” Graham audibly sighed with relief. _Ye of so little faith_ “Can’t miss him, he’s not even human, just a time traveling blowfish.”

Yaz had to burst out laughing, the image in her head was too absurd not too. _Forget terminator, we should have always worried about the bloody blowfish bwahahahah._

“You mean like one of those puffer fish… who would let them time travel?” _Oh bless you Graham._

“Well technically they’re alien blowfish people.” _That would make more sense._ Yaz was curious if they had a name for themselves. She somehow doubted they would just call themselves blowfish. Unless Earth blowfish were descended from them or vice versa. _Completely absurd… unless…_

“And let me tell you, they live up to the name.” _I could have gone my whole life without knowing this man has… had relations with a fish._

Ryan and Graham’s mouths were completely agape. The Doctor’s had settled into the sort of false disapproving scowl that one gets when trying to suppress 

“So what will it be, will you help a fella out?”

“On the condition you leave us alone afterwards.” _Oh the Doctor is being tetchy, she’s normally so eager to help out._ The usual procedure was pro-offering help

Jack laughed it off. Yaz was idly curious if there was anything that could get under skin. _Based on our interactions so far, probably not being the center of attention, which makes how he managed to travel with the Doctor in the first place a minor miracle._

“Could use your names. Although I’m more than happy to refer to you by how many times I’ve thought about having sex with you since I first laid eyes on you.”

Yaz thought Graham would keel over in shock. Ryan took an unconformable step back.

She deadpanned, “Charming.”

Desperate to change the subject, Graham blurted out, “Brien Graham.” _Oh thank god we didn’t take him to see Barton._ “Is my name.”

That could quite easily take the title for one of the worst aliases ever. Yaz was disappointed by the lack of natural lying ability. Graham clearly was an only child. Nothing like a little sister to get those clearly had no siblings. He might as well be a boy scout. _He probably was._

“Martin Lu-” Ryan had the same exact deer in the headlights look as he had in school whenever the teacher called on him out of the blue. “Er- King.” _Nice save not claiming the name of one of the most famous people ever._

“Mandip Gill,” Yaz rattled off without a moment’s hesitation. _Someone’s got to be good about giving out aliases around here._

Once assured Jack’s attention had shift the Doctor, Yaz mouthed at Ryan his alias, trying not to laugh. _I guess meeting the man himself in the flesh left an impression._

“And I’m Jo- Jane Smith.” Yaz swallowed the laughter bubbling up in her chest. Like she knew the Doctor wouldn’t be calling herself that for obvious reasons. But she figured that surely she had a ready alias for when some stinker with a lack of imagination rejected the Doctor moniker.

“Yes, Jo Jane Smith. That’s my name, don’t wear it out.” _Oh bless her hearts, she couldn’t be a smooth operator even if she tried._

“Pleasure to make your acquaintance Jo Jane.” He went to grasp and kiss her hand but the Doctor flittered about to avoid his amorous advance, treating him as if he had the plague.

“Let’s get this over with.” The Doctor once again charged off in a seemingly random direction. Where before she had been as irrepressible as a Duracell bunny, now the air of obligation clung to her like the industrial smog hanging in the air.

They must have spent hours wandering the fairgrounds. Yaz didn’t quite understand why Jack was so convinced that in such a big city the blowfish person was attending the World’s Fair. Sure they were apparently a pleasure-seeking sort (and Jack once again made it explicitly clear he meant in all senses of that particular word) and nowhere else in Chicago could compete on that front.

But something niggled. The blowfish person was just being a tourist, not unlike their travels with the Doctor. Yaz supposed she counted as responsible(?) adult supervision being a Time Lord and all. But what right did they have to stop someone who wasn’t trying to conquer or kill or change history for the worse. They weren’t exactly dealing with Tim Shaw or the Master here.

She didn’t voice her misgivings. The Doctor was on board with Jack’s plan and that would have to be enough for her.

Finally after ages they spotted a red fin. Unfortunately the red fin seemed to have spotted them in turn and starting booking it in the opposite direction. She didn’t know what set him off. If she had to guess it was their conspicuous lack of period appropriate dress. Or maybe he already knew Jack was on his proverbial tail Whatever the case they’d lost them in the crowd if they didn’t hurry.

And so they did, sprinting off as a collective. Yaz, Ryan and Jack broke ahead of the pack, leaving Graham and more surprisingly the Doctor in their wake. _With all the running that comes with this lifestyle you’d think she’d be in better shape._

“Stop right there, blowfish man!” Ryan shouted confidently as if they had any shot of actually catching up with him. _For a fish with legs, he sure can move._

“And why would I do that human?” he shouted back at them, although he did slow down to a stop, perhaps curious.

“She’s police.” Catching his breath, Ryan pointed at her.

She muttered under her breath. “Ryan, I don’t exactly have jurisdiction here.” _Or even a semi-impressive looking badge to flash to help fake it._

“Well he doesn’t know that now does he.”

“He does now.” The blowfish blew a raspberry, before booking it at high speeds through the crowd. There was some grumbling at being shoved and quite a few delighted and surprised squeals at what people must have thought was a pretty good costume. _Better than mass panic at an alien sighting I suppose._

“Why’d you have to go and be all Judoon about it?” He kicked up some dust on the ground in frustration.

“You did not just call me a space rhino!?”

Jack chimed in, seemingly talking aloud for his own benefit. “Oh the Judoon, bit thick, which does mean unlike most species, they can’t be seduced into letting prisoners go… and trust me I’ve tried.” _Really ought to have his picture in the dictionary next to man whore because good god is there anything he won’t fuck._

“Oi, you lot he’s getting away and I’m not exactly built for a highspeed chase.” Graham had just caught up with them and was panting like a dog in summer, hands resting on his knees.

“Gramps you stay here, let us handle it.”

Yaz nodded in agreement. “Yeah you can warn us on the comms if he doubles back to shake us.”

Graham shook his head. “And miss out on all the fun, nice try.”

“The more the merrier, so long as we actually catch him.”

They slowed their pursuit, looking for any clues as to the direction the blowfish headed off in. Luckily given the distinctly memorable appearance, Graham and Jack were able to reconstruct his path by stopping passersby. As they followed in his footsteps it became obvious why. _Towards the water… duh._

Anchored at the edge of the small inlet were what Yaz assumed to be replicas of the ships Columbus took on his first voyage. It was kinda bizarre to see old timey sailing ships amidst all the metal and steam and industry. They were just as out of time as Yaz and the rest of the gang. _Excluding the Doctor of course she belongs to all times and no times. She’s absolutely timeless._ And abroad one of the ships was their target. They gang the deck. In a panic, the blowfish climbed the mast, reaching the nesting observations deck.

Yaz wasn’t quite sure what the long-term game plan was, unless Olympic diving was on his resume and he would escape by swan diving into the lake. _Or maybe he’ll sprout wings and fly off. Aliens are full of surprises. Like the Pting is too cute to be such an all-consuming terror._

She stepped forward to start climbing the ropes after him but Jack shook his head.

Jack pulled out a sci-fi looking gun. Yaz felt her heart jump. He couldn’t mean to kill the blowfish. Surely the Doctor wouldn’t hang out with someone so gun happy. She didn’t even like it when that idiotic brute of a businessman put that poor giant spider out of its misery. _Even if they sound American._

Yaz was frozen, tempted to intervene but worried someone else could get hurt in the process. She wasn’t confident she could disarm Jack in time.

In the end she needn’t have worried. Jack’s aim shifted from the blowfish down to the base of the mast. He fired and a ray radiated outward in a cubic shape and took out a chunk of wood and made it disappear as if it had never existed.

_So it’s some kind of squareness gun?_

And down the mast went with blowfish man in tow. _Timber!_

Graham and Ryan scrambled out the way. Yaz counted herself lucky that the fallen mast hadn’t cracked open the hull and they weren’t sinking into lake water.

Once the figurative dust cleared, the blowfish did not rise from the deck. He probably hit his head hard and was knocked unconscious. _Hopefully he’s just unconscious, that was quite the fall._

All of them surrounded the body. Yaz half expected the blowfish to spring to life like some cartoon. He didn’t.

“So you’ve got your mark, what now?” asked Graham. Yaz was thinking much of the same thing. Usually, the Doctor chased them off or tricked themselves into blowing themselves up spectacularly. Sending folks to jail wasn’t exactly her MO.

“My organization will be very interested in him.” _Sound more ominous and villainous why don’t you._ The Doctor had been suspicious of many people for less.

The Doctor admonished him, “You mean Torchwood, don’t be so barbaric.”

Jack’s eyes narrowed in suspicion, “You know about Torchwood?”

“You mean the worst kept secret in all of Cardiff… yes.”  
Jack harrumphed but didn’t exactly dispute her point.

Meanwhile Yaz had absolutely no idea what this Torchwood thing was. From context she guessed it was some kind of spy-ops secret MI5 operation, probably specializing in aliens or the supernatural, which seemed a bit too X-Files for real life but here they were. _Probably got their super-secret budget chomped to bits what with all the austerity._

“Is he even still alive?” Graham looked as if he wanted to experimentally poke at him. thought the better of it, which was not an unreasonable response to an alien blowfish.

Ryan had no such compunctions but accidentally pricked his finger on one of the pointy ends. Yaz hoped it wasn’t poisonous. Although she assumed the Doctor would have made a fuss if the spines were dangerous.

Jack looked cross. “I wasn’t that rough with him. And technically speaking I didn’t lay a finger on him.” _I’m sure that defense would stand up in time cop court._

The Doctor approached the blowfish, crouching down to take in whatever vital signs blowfish people give off.

Jack cast her a skeptical look that the Doctor parried.

“What? Sometimes time travelers are also exobiologists,” the Doctor said as if that did a good job of not blowing her cover.

The Doctor was fiddling away with something on the blowfish’s wrist. From where Yaz stood the Doctor’s body blocked her view so she couldn’t tell exactly what.

“Well he’s still breathing,” the Doctor announced.

Once she stepped away from the blowfish man, Yaz saw that there was a device on his wrist, looking very much like the one Krasko had used in Birmingham. _What did the Doctor call it again…_

“And that vortex manipulator looks very broken.” _Ah yes that’s it._

Jack beelined for the device, aggressively removing it from its unconscious owner.

“No,” Jack frowned, examining it further, experimentally pressing at buttons, but not seeming to find what he was looking for, “Someone’s just scrambled the activation code.”

He played with it further before giving up and pocketing his misbegotten loot. The Doctor’s gaze was fixated on the device the entire time like it was a grenade without a pin. 

“He probably broke it somehow, which would be why he didn’t warp away.” Yaz suggested, feeling as if she were covering for the Doctor.

“That’s not it. Torchwood registered the initial activity using the Rift. It was working. I thought I’d finally gotten my out from this awful time period.” _I’d be very offended right now, you know if I were actually from this time period._

Jack pulled a pair of mean looking manacles and attached them to the blowfish’s arms. They shut instantly, the cuffs looking like they were magnetized as they bound the blowfish’s wrists together. He lifted and heaved the unconscious body into an upright position.

The Doctor eyed the scene before her. Yaz couldn’t read her expression, at least before she broke out into something resembling her usual cheer. “Well now that you have this situation under control, my friends and I will be on our way.”

Rather than wait for a response, the Doctor was already wandering off, indicating for the rest of the gang to follow her lead. She was evidently eager not to linger. While admittedly her usual MO, it seemed to Yaz that the Doctor wanted to be done with Jack at the earliest opportunity. _He’s an old friend allegedly, what does he do that makes her so evasive._

Yaz hoped the Doctor wasn’t always this cagey with her past. Yaz hoped that one day when– _if_ – she stopped traveling, the Doctor wouldn’t be so quick to leave her in the dust if their paths crossed again. And it wasn’t like she seemed the type to make house calls… a little too forgetful.

Once safely on solid ground and while the replica Santa Maria was still in sight, the Doctor pulled out her sonic and aimed at the now distant pair of figures walking its deck. _I guess it has the range._

Freed of the cuffs, the blowfish made a dive for the water. And for a humanoid blowfish that seemed to have no trouble walking around and breathing on land, they certainly took to water like well, a fish.

Jack gestured broadly with his arms as to say “what the fuck” before diving in after his wayward charge. The Doctor had calculated that he would prioritize recapturing his target over chasing after them and seemed to have the right of it.

“Run.”

They did as they were told.

The Doctor didn’t relax until they were all onboard the TARDIS and the central pillar began rotating up and down, indicating they were traveling in the time vortex. There had been no signs that Jack had managed to follow their tracks through the crowds at the fairgrounds.

“So where to next Doctor?” asked Ryan, breaking the eerie silence that had held them all suspended since they had left Jack. 

Yaz chimed in, “Yeah you promised the Moon. Or at the very least a moon.”

She would take a good alien moon. Somewhere with a cool view from a high perch or a bustling market filled with things both strange and beautiful or teeming oceans, practically bursting with any assortment of creatures. The possibilities were as limitless as the universe.

“Hmmmmm I was just thinking,” the Doctor paused in a move that could be very good or very very bad. There was nothing she hated more than breaking bad news to them and so she’d drag her feet unless there was a bug-eyed monster right on their tail. “How much do you lot like Frankenstein?”

Graham glanced up from where is he was unpacking his remaining supplies, asked, “The scientist or the monster?”

When that question was met with silence, he huffed and puffed. “What? I’m not crazy, it’s an important distinction.”

“Graham, don’t they just come as a packaged deal?” _Sorta like the Doctor and the monsters._

Frankly Yaz also felt the more pertinent question was whether the Doctor meant the book or the movie. On the one hand Mary Shelley seemed like a cool goth gal to spend an afternoon with. On the other, a classic Hollywood movie set could be full of potential mysteries or at least a good story.

“More importantly he’s not real, right? Doctor tell me he’s not real.” Ryan sounded legitimately concerned, like this might be the very thing that would make him finally snap. _Because the Stenza, the Master and the Dregs aren’t mind meltingly terrifying enough on their own._

“Last I checked no.” The Doctor didn’t even look up as she kept whirling around the central console, flicking switches, pulling levers, and otherwise looking busy. “But the universe is pretty big and does have this quite fabulous habit of proving me wrong.”

There was a stray circuit pulse that sparked her but the Doctor didn’t miss a beat. “Always something new.”

“But just imagine it. A dark and stormy night. Ghost stories. Mary Shelley.” The Doctor’s face lit up with grin, the same mad grin when they agreed to travel with her for the long haul. _Feels like both lifetimes ago and just yesterday._

“What could possibly go wrong?”

Yaz smiled, broad and toothy. In the end, life with the Doctor was just tempting fate in the most delightful fashion. And she wouldn’t have it any other way.


End file.
